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We were praying through song and just asking that you would speak to us through your spirit and God. I pray that you would calm our hearts, calm our minds and that we would be aware of your presence and that we would hear you and God, we want to respond to whatever you want to do in each of our hearts. So I pray that you would be glorified here in the next few minutes. And God, again, we just give you the freedom to do whatever you want to do in our lives and we want to obey you in Jesus name. Amen. Good morning. Usually at this time of the year I kind of get a break in my work. It's typically hot, dry, the grass slows down and I end up skipping lawns. And I kind of look forward to that in some ways because in the springtime I intentionally make my schedule so I can just barely keep my nose above water in the spring so that at this time of the year I have enough work, enough income. Well, that hasn't happened this year. The break hasn't happened. In fact, the grass is growing more right now than it did this spring. It's a pretty unusual weather pattern. We keep having rain, which I'm grateful for, but it's made so I feel like what my mother in law would call a Russian Mennonite, a Russian Mennonite a been rushing from one thing to another, what the next thing that needs to be done. And it feels like I'm. I don't get enough time to think, to reflect, to meditate and, and just slow down. And I've been telling the Lord that I don't want to miss what he's doing because of my busyness. I want to be aware of what he's, of what's going on, what God is doing around me, what God wants to do. And so I've been thinking about that and I, I was recently reading in 1st Samuel chapter 12. I'm going to turn there this morning and there was one verse in First Samuel that especially stood out to me. But brief background of what's been going on in First Samuel here. The nation of Israel has been repeatedly asking for a king. They want a king like the nations out around them. See, Israel was a theocracy, God was their king and God gave them Samuel as their judge. And Samuel's now an old man. The sons he appointed as judges are accepting bribes, they're perverting justice. They are not like Samuel. And naturally the people don't want crooked judges. And so they want a king. They wanted a king. They could see they Were tired of they can't see God and so they're asking for a king. Samuel goes to God and cries out to him, says God, what do I do? And God tells them, don't. Basically putting in my own words, God said, don't stress over it. They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me. They're rejecting God as their king. And he tells Samuel to go ahead and he tells them who to anoint. And they have a king. At the end of First Samuel, Chapter 11, Saul is crowned king of Israel. I'm going to pick up in 12 and going to be reading this in several sections. First reading the first five verses in 1st Samuel 12. Now Samuel said to all Israel, indeed I have heeded your voice in all that you said to me and have made a king over you. And now here is the king walking before you. I am old and gray headed and look, my sons are with you. And I have walked before you from my childhood to this day. Here I am, witness against me before the Lord and his anointed. Let me pause here just a second. The scene is a. Is a courtroom, it's a court scene really. He's setting it up, saying, here I am before God. He's before his superiors, God and the king. And he'd like to hear them accuse him if he's done something wrong. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I received any bribe with which to blind my eyes. I will restore it to you, they said, you have not cheated us or oppressed us. You have not taken anything from any man's hand. Then he said to them, the Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day that you have not found anything in my hand. And they answered, he is witness. So Samuel, the brief summary is, Samuel has done what's right. He's been a righteous judge. Picking up in verse six. Then Samuel said to the people, it is the Lord who raised up Moses and Aaron and who brought up your fathers from the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord which he did to you and your fathers. So here's what God did. When Jacob had gone into Egypt and your fathers cried out to the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. And when they forgot the Lord their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. Then they cried out to the Lord and said, we have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and Ashtoreth. Now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you. And the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Bedon and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side. And you dwelt in safety. And when you saw that Nahash, king of the Amorites, came against you, you said to me, no, but a king shall rule over us. When the Lord your God was your king. Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen and you have desired. And take note that the Lord has set a king over you. If you fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God. However, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you as it was against your fathers. So God has fulfilled. He lists what God Give him a brief review of their history as a nation. Here's what God did for you. Step by step. God delivered you over and over when you followed him and you cried out to him. Here's what God did. So Samuel had done what was right. God had was righteous in all his ways. He had fulfilled his responsibilities in their covenant. And we see it back in verse 12 that Israel was forgetting their history. Everything God did for them. And they wanted a king. Picking up in 16 reading the next four verses is today not the wheat harvest. I will call to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking for a king for yourselves. So Samuel called to the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves. So it's Israel, the nation has not fulfilled their responsibilities to God. Samuel did what was right. God did, but the people have not. And they've they didn't want they rejected God as their king. Now if it were to storm this afternoon, no one would think it was very unusual. We. It seems like we've been having storms every day or every other day. Last evening I was down at Titan Felice's house and all of a sudden the sky just opened up and dark dumped and I could hardly see to back my trailer out of the drive. It was. It was raining so hard. Seems it's been doing that every day. But in Israel the wheat harvest is in mid May to mid June and it is extremely unusual to have any rain at that time of the year. They normally don't get rain again until you get into the fall. And so this was extremely unusual. And Samuel asked the Lord to send thunder and rain to show them that they had sinned against the Lord. So it's clearly a supernatural sign. Note in verse 19 that the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord your God, they call them your God. I don't know if. Is that a hint maybe of how far they had slipped that they see God is his God, not the Lord our God. Picking up in verse 20 then Samuel said to the people, do not fear, you have done all this wickedness. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside, for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people. And as for me, moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. But I will teach you the good and right way. Verse 20 gives us what to do when we realize we've sinned. When we realize we've sinned. Don't Satan wants to say you messed up. Do you think God's going to forgive you for that? Why would he ever feel like that? Ever wonder if, boy, would God forgive me? I mean, that was terrible. But God does. God longs to forgive and have us continue following him, serving the Lord with all our heart. Want to Note in verse 23 that prayerlessness is sin? Samuel said he won't sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for them. You know, if I believe that God. If I really believe that God answers the prayers of his people, then I will pray. If I don't believe it, I'm not going to bother. Why would I waste my time? But God hears and answers. Last two verses of the chapter the next verse is the one that really got my attention. Only fear the Lord and serve him with truth, with all, in truth, with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. Consider what great things God has done for you. Word consider means to see, either literally or figuratively. It's to advise yourself, to discern, perceive, to consider or think. Webster says, consider means to think about carefully, to take into account consider what God has done. That's when we will want to serve the Lord with everything we have, when we consider what he's done. I started noticing after reading this verse, I started noticing different places in Scripture where it where we're told to consider things. And so I did a search. I'd like to give you a couple of those this morning. In Psalm 64. 9 the setting here is that God is bringing judgment on wicked people. And it says, and all men shall fear and shall declare the work of the Lord, for they shall wisely consider his doings. In Isaiah chapter 5, verses 11 and 12 we're told about people who do not consider. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink and continue until night, till wine inflames them, and the harp and the lyre and the timbrel and the flute and wine are in their feast. But they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands. A little later in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 41, the Lord is describing the desert and what he will do. I will open rivers on the bare heights and springs in the midst of the valley. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, dry land, fountains of water. I will put the cedar in the wilderness and the acacia, the myrtle, the olive tree. I will place the juniper in the desert together with the box tree and the cypress. So God's turning the desert into a fertile, well watered land with six different kinds of trees. Why? Next verse tells us verse 20 that they may see and know, consider, understand together that the hand of the Lord has done this. The Holy One is created. I think sometimes God does things so that we'll notice and go, wow, how did that happen? That's an act of God. I'm flipping back to Romans chapter 4, Romans chapter four. Reading 1922 here it's talking about Abraham. His righteousness was by faith and not being weak in faith, he, Abraham did not consider his own body already dead since he was about 100 years old. And the deadness of Sarah's womb. This is when God had promised them he would have a son. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what he God had promised, he was also able to perform, and therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. So Abraham did not consider the fact that his body was as good as dead as far as reproduction is concerned, but he considered who was speaking, what God said he would do. We're also told in several places to consider nature. One of those is in Psalm 8, verses 3 and 4. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you visit him. This verse is tied in my mind to a very distinct memory of when I was 21 years old, year before we got married, I was living down in Madison county in Pratt's, and I discovered that the night sky was different there than in the outskirts of Fairfax, where I grew up. There's a lot of light pollution in Fairfax and you can see a lot better at night down in Madison County. One night I forgot something out in my car and I walked out to my car. When I walked out the basement door, I looked up and was just like, wow. The sky was awesome. I don't know a better word for it. It was just awesome. There was the stars were so vivid and just from one horizon to the other. I ended up and went out and laid on the driveway in my back and just studied the sky for quite a while. Now I'm going to say not the church. Isn't the place, the only place where worship happens. Worship happens wherever you are. When you see God's work, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you visit Him? When I consider the heavens, the vastness of it, the number of stars, we can't begin to fathom it. My brain can't. When I consider the heavens, I will begin to realize how great God is and how small I really am. Thinking about considering. I'm turning to Luke, actually. Luke, Luke, chapter 12 reading verses 24 to 27 consider the ravens, for they neither sow. This is Jesus speaking. They neither sow nor reap, neither. They neither have storehouses or barns, and God feeds them. How much more are you better than the fowls? Now I want to be clear about one thing. These verses are not saying don't work. The ravens don't store up. It's not saying we shouldn't work, but how does God feed ravens? God feet. God has things provided for them, and they go out and find it. They have to go out and find it and get it, but God provides things for them. You know, it's interesting in reading about ravens. Ravens are extremely intelligent birds. Some scientists would say they're one of the most intelligent birds. They can do something that I'm not aware that any other animal that anything but humans can do, and that is ravens can have been observed communicating about something that is at another place that you can't see at the time. For instance, ravens mate for life. And once they're paired, that pair is together, they hunt together, they feed together. And it if they're on. A scientist observed a pair of ravens on a dead animal, and young ravens flock together for the night and then hunt individually. And a young raven came along and found this pair on a dead animal, and they weren't about to share, they chased him away. So the raven went back completely to another place. I don't know how far communicated with the flock. They spent the night and first thing in the morning they came back as a flock and drove the pair away and feasted together. Interesting. So they're. I don't know how they communicate, but they communicated about something they couldn't even see. Anyway, God provides for the ravens. And how much more will God provide for us? Luke 12:25. And which of you, with taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? If you then are not able to do that thing which is least, why are you anxious concerning the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spin not. And yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. When I was about 10 years old, not around 10 years old, I remember I rode up over the hill to our neighbor's house, and I found Pete out in the yard on his knees behind a tripod. He had a macro lens on his camera and he was taking a picture. He was getting photos of a rose. And I rode up, rode in on my bike, and he said, hey, Nathan, come here, come see this. And he was all excited. What's he doing? I came over and he said, you look through this lens. And so I looked and wow, it was amazing. And he said, look at what God did. Look at all the detail that's in this flower. You know, that. That made a deep impression on me. I've never looked at flowers the same at 10 years old, I said, wow. When Pete looks at flowers, he thinks about God. And it really made an impression on me. I love flowers. Often when I'm working, when I'm too busy, the Lord reminds me with flowers, it's like the flowers are calling to me, hey, I'm here. Come see me. Come see what God did. And take a moment to consider that Brandon's gonna. He's got some pictures. He's gonna scroll through. These are just flowers that I've been considering in the last six months. And song is one that the Lord brought to my mind in connection with considering the lilies. So go ahead, Brandon.
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And there's not a king with more splendor than men. Consider the sparrows they don't pledge their soul but they're fed by the Master who watches them grow we are Heavenly Father above With eyes for mercy and a heart full of love he really cares when your head is above Consider the living and then you will know
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Until.
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May I introduce you to this friend of mine who has days of the stars Tells the sun when to shine and kisses the flower each morning with dew but he's not too busy to care about you we have a heavenly Father above With eyes full of mercy and a heart full of love he really cares when your head is alone Consider the belief and then you will know Consider the.
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Thank you, Brandon. When I consider nature, it leads me to worship the Creator. Another thing we're to consider is Jesus turning to Hebrews, chapter two. I see, I forgot to mark this one. I'm going to jump in at verse 17 and read through chapter three, verse two. Therefore, in all things he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in all things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Propitiation, the atoning sacrifice. So that he could make the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people. For our sins. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are being tempted. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus Christ. It goes on to describe how Jesus was faithful, faithful High priest. So when you are tempted, consider Jesus. Hebrews 12. Reading the first three familiar verses, therefore we also are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily ensnare us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our Faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such hostility of sinners against himself. Lest you be wearied and and faint in your minds. We're to consider what Jesus endured to redeem us. Did you know we're to consider each other. We are in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 24, where it says. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. So we consider each other. How can we encourage each other to love? We're to do everything in love and good deeds. Consider each other. God considers my heart. Proverbs. Proverbs 24:12 jumping in. He, does he not? Does not he that weighs the heart consider it? And he that keeps your soul, does he not know it? And shall he not render to every man according to his works? Now, if I'm living a wicked life, that's a terrifying verse. But if I'm coming to Jesus and asking him to forgive me and I want to do what's right, then it's not a scary thing to have the Lord consider my heart and know it. Then it's a comforting thing that God knows. God knows my motives. What happens if I don't consider what God has done? I think we have an example of that in the Gospels. In. Mark 6, 49, 52. Here's what has just happened. As Jesus fed the 5,000 people with one boy's lunch. And he has the disciples passing out the food to the huge crowd. 5,000 men, plus women and children. And when they're done, they gather 12 baskets of leftovers. And then he sends them off on the Sea of Galilee. And later he comes to them walking on the water. And here's their response. And when they saw him walking on the sea, they supposed it to be a ghost. And they cried out, for they all saw him and were troubled. But immediately he talked to them and said to them, be of good cheer. It is I. Do not be afraid. Then he went up into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure and marveled. For they had not understood about the loaves because their hearts were hardened. They hadn't understood, they hadn't considered what was going on with the loaves. You know, I think it's a case of being so busy. They were busy serving, they were passing out what Jesus gave them. They were busy serving the people to the point that they missed what was going on. They missed what it said about who Jesus is. It says they didn't understand. They had not understood about the loaves because their hearts were hardened. They weren't aware of what God was revealing about himself. So when I don't consider, I will miss how God is revealing himself. What happens when I do consider what God has done? Psalm 92:4 says, for you, Lord, have made me glad. Through your work I will triumph in the works of your hands. When I consider what God has done. When I consider what God has done for me, and I think for each of us, each of us personally can consider what has God done for me. When I consider that, it brings joy. When I consider the great things God has done for me, it causes me to worship my Creator, my Savior. In closing throughout Scripture we see that God's people are to cultivate an awareness of God's presence. They're to consider what God has done for them in the past, what God is doing around them right now, and what God wants to do, what he will do in the future. When I consider the great things God has done for me, the only proper response is to gratefully fear the Lord. Serve him in truth with all my heart. Would you stand, please? Thank you, Lord, for each person here. Thank you for that. You are always working in every heart, Lord. We invite your work in our hearts. I invite your work in my heart. I pray as we go about our responsibilities this week that we would cultivate awareness of your presence with us, that we would be sensitive to what you are doing and what you would like to do in us and through us. Because that's when we will live lives that honor you. We ask that you would guide us as we go from here. We thank you in the name of Jesus, our Savior. Amen.